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I'm from the Northeastern US, and most people there use "not bad" the same way. There's a book, King Rat, where an American is serving a Brit some eggs. The Brit says it's not bad, and the American replies "What are you talking about? These are the best goddamn eggs you've ever had." The Brit then explains what he means by not bad.

I was so confused why the American didn't know the Brit was complimenting him!

It depends on how you inflect the "not bad". If you hold out the "bad" and left your voice go up, that's a compliment. If you say "not bad" very curtly, that means you're just saying it's okay, but not great.

As a white man I was OK with it. For real though, I really liked them all too, gaijin probably the least. I liked Shogun because I read it in high school when I was going through my Japan-is-God phase. All of his characters are superb though.

I'm not so sure: to us Brits "[x] is quite [y]" is analogous to "[x] is [y'ish] but the monocle remains firmly in place". By contrast, to North Americans - like the delightful Mrs. GilbertN - the implication is that [x] is [y] to an impressive degree.

'Quite' is often an understatement too - here, the nurse would be the Brit, the doctor American.

I believe there was an incident in the Korean war where a British infantry unit was under very heavy attack and was refused support as the radio operator had said things were 'quite bad' or something similar, as opposed to saying 'holygodfuck there are millions of them and we're being overrun.'

You misunderstand: in context, "quite good" literally means - to a Brit - "of average quality". Conversely, "it's really quite good" conveys the same meaning you understand it to have without the the modifier "really".

Think of it like this: "that kick-flip you pulled was sick!" vs "The death penalty? That's just sick". In both cases the usage is literal - i.e. without irony - but the meaning is opposite. What's understood depends on your familiarity with the idiom.

That's as maybe but unfortunately we are still similar to women. I eat less meat and own fewer guns than the average citizen of the USA. I also own less meat and eat fewer women, which is as brazen a subset of British behaviour as you are likely to hear about today.

British people dislike being direct and confrontational, so when we're talking about something that can cause heads to clash, we dress up what we mean in nicer terms in order to avoid causing offence and showing respect.

Can backfire when you're talking to people of other cultures who take what you mean literally though.

Yeah, we're just trying to be polite, basically. We like to thank others as much as possible. I thank the shopkeep for taking my money, who thanks me for giving the money, and I thank them for the change. No need to say "Have a nice day" though like our American counterparts: every Brit knows that eventually something will ruin the day.

Ah, perhaps you can shed some light on something I've read on the good ol' internets - that the words/phrase "thanks"/"thank you" are falling out of favor colloquially. Is it true they seem a bit formal and most people opt for "cheers" in informal situations? E.g., at the market, a cafe, etc.

EDIT: I meant to say generally in the UK, not in the entire Anglosphere.

I work in a shop and it depends on who I'm serving. If it's an elderly customer or someone generally older than me I will say "thank you," as it's what they expect. Someone my own age or round I say "cheers," or just "thanks."

I'd say that's reasonably true, though it depends. I think majority of situations where I'm dealing with strangers do still feel formal, so I'll say "thanks"/"thank you".

If I'm in a pub/bar I'll usually say "cheers", or "cheers mate" (if male). Would also use "cheers" around friends or any obviously informal situations, particularly around people my own age.

EDIT: to specifically answer your question:

Is it true they seem a bit formal and most people opt for "cheers" in informal situations

I don't think it would be weird to say "thanks" in obviously informal situations, but it would probably sound overly polite/formal. At the least I'd probably say "thanks mate", but would probably favour "cheers".

Really depends where you come from. The UK is chock full of different dialects. "Thank You" can be considered a little more formal, but I wouldn't say that with "thanks". I tend to use "cheers" and "ta" myself.

I still say safe to people running corner shops or takeaways when I'm in London.
But rarely ever when I'm not. I might say it in other shops but it depends on whether the person is likely to understand.
Thank you is too long to say. I think I usually only use it when I genuinely want to thank the person.

And trust me, you don't wanna see a British person being direct and confrontational, usually after their means of avoiding it fail, because you're in for one hell of a serious shit storm, directly proportional with the amount of restraint shown before. I'd much, much rather heed the above table and act accordingly.

Really, the British are good at doing this, and I guess there are some cultures who can't figure it out... but compared to the rest of the world, you are just lightweights.

In the pantheon of opposite-meaning cultures, the Japanese are light years ahead of the British. I don't speak the language well enough to illustrate, but I've seen it happen many, many times. Lots of Japanese people will re-word the same non-answer a dozen times and still not just speak the truth, if there's even a sliver of a chance that it will offend. There is a very definite skill in determining when they are being honest, and when they are just agreeing out of politeness.

Similarly, the Indian peoples are masters at saying they will do what you want while meaning nothing of the sort. When you say things like 'do you understand what I've just said? or Do you agree, lots of Indian people will use the word 'Yes' and all it's synonyms and still think they are telling your as forcefully as possible that they do NOT agree. I think a lot of it is to do with body language, so if you don't understand the physical signals and just go by the words used, you won't realise what they are saying. I've been told that it's a form of respect, in that they won't come out and disagree with you vocally because that would be disrespectful, but you should be able to tell from their body language and other signals that they think you are fucking buffoon while nodding in agreement.

And then there's the equivocal head side-to-side movement that is used continuously to mean everything from 'yes I understand' to 'do I know you?' and you have to be able to figure out what for yourself.

I want to comment on this. Isn't agreement an absolute? Either I agree (which implies complete agreement) or I do not agree. If I do not agree, I must almost agree, for if I almost agree, I certainly do not agree.

Actually, you could probably replace every single entry in the left-hand column with "I'm sorry" for Canadians. It's a versatile phrase that we Canadians can bend to any meaning with subtle changes in inflection or nearly-invisible raises of the eyebrow.

I'm British, and it is indeed correct. These differences in the acquired meaning of these terms, has caused many a misunderstanding between myself and American other half. (Misunderstanding in the literal sense, and not meaning fights)

I was a bit disappointed that in this thread the word "British" was used instead of the word "English" in every post... even the WELSH guy who "MOVED TO BRITAIN". But I hear what you all say and it is quite interesting.

I'm not British and this sounds a lot like "professionalism". Basically stating disagreement and suggesting other ideas without actually saying you disagree with your conversational partner/subordinate/colleague.

One thing that bothered me about this was that the columns are in the wrong order. As it was written, I had to constantly revisit the first column to remember the point as I scanned the other two columns.

Then I realised that if you swapped the last two columns around, it suddenly became much easier to read.

So this...

What they say - What they mean - What you thought you heard

... is really difficult for my brain to hang on to. But this...

What they say - what you thought they said - what they meant

... is much, much easier to read, because it's like a joke, with the punchline at the end.

I'm from the north of england and I am going to be blunt. This is basically bollocks. If you're one of those southern puffs you might consider this form of pleasant and diplomatic tosh. Me and my brothers use the language correctly. If you're wrong; we'll tell you. But maybe that's the drink talking YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

I thought it was one of those silly images about understanding women, but then I read the actual title.

This is something that I simply can't comprehend as in my own language things are spoken rather directly. It seems that the comments verify the information in this image. Because of that I'm currently I'm feeling very vulnerable as I'm thinking on how many occasions I have actually mistook the point an Englishman has tried to get across.

Hm, seems similar to Japanese culture too - they like to beat around the bush attempting to not offend as well. Seems like a stark contrast from what I've heard about Scandinavians/Northern Europeans and in my experience, mainland Chinese people.